Christmas Morning 2011

This is how our Christmas' typically go: Kids wake up at some unheard of early time, sit in one of their rooms together until the clock strikes 5 am.  Then they call my cell phone to alert me to it being 5 am which is the earliest they are allowed to wake up on this morning.  Then I jump out of bed, grab the camera and a cup of hot chocolate and head out to the living room.  They are not allowed to come down stairs until I am set up and ready with my camera.  Then they come down two at a time to see what Santa has brought them.  Obviously they have clued in to the fact that I take their picture as they come around the corner so this year I got a few snazzy poses.  Whitley even woke up early to do her hair and make up. My kind of girl! 

I guess Bo forgot the rule about girls first, he left Katy in the dust.  He is 6 now and still doesn't quite get how the Santa thing works.  Santa leaves their gift by their stocking with their name on it.  It is unwrapped and away from the tree.  He zooms right in every year and kneels in front of the tree trying to figure out what is his.  We have to direct him to his stocking and explain again that this is where Santa leaves his gifts.

Love love love the look on her face!

Brooklyn

Dalin never ceases to come up with some great face for pictures.

Rhett

Stephen

Nick used to be shy....

Whitley looks like she's walking the runway..

Chelsey... the one who protested this early morning rise time.  I'm pretty sure she was the orchestrator of this many years ago. Reap what you sow honey!

Once everyone has had a minute to check out their stockings, we divvy out all the gifts and get to it.  This year it took us about an hour and a half to get through it all. 

Dalin picked up a gift and mentioned that it felt like a book.  He then repeated several times "it better be the Throne of Fire!"  I guess I did good.  It was a last minute idea and obviously a good one!

While the kids were shopping at the Dollar Store for each other, Bo found this sparkly blue hat.  He got one for Stephen and then cried pitifully when I wouldn't let him buy himself one.  How could we not have one waiting under the tree after that?

Brooklyn was tuff this year because her list mostly contained different kinds of candy she would like.  I found this adorable watch and decided she must have it!

The only thing the three younger boys consistently asked for this year was a Wii game called Skylanders.  They pretty much suspected they would get it since they asked everyday and left me a note on the fridge.  When they saw the box marked to the three of them, they couldn't wait to open it.  It's all they've done since.

Stephen's Christmas didn't go that well.  His pj's didn't fit right, he hated the shirt I got him, his watch was too big and the Van's he thought he would love felt weird when he walked.  Lucky for me he's pretty easy going.  We were able to fix most of it and after walking around a while, the Van's felt fine and he's worn them ever since.

All Chelsey wanted was a good camera.  I'm pretty sure this is the third year we have gotten her one but apparently the other two weren't good.  So pretty much that's about all she got this year.  I did find a super cute shirt for her that she loved (the picture), but it was too small. 

In a last ditch effort to not buy Nick a Morphsuit (the only thing on his list) I decided to buy him a rope and some boots.  He seemed to like them and is now itching to go try it out.  He says the boots are better than his DCs.  Wow!

Whitley saw this purse while we were at a boutique and mentioned I should get if for her for Christmas.  I happened to have a friend working at the boutique so I slipped her a check and had her get it for me.  I'm pretty sure Whitley hadn't given it a thought since.  Surprise!!

Katy just wanted a new doll.  This is what she asked Santa for and that's what she got.  An Arowa doll.  We are still working on getting her to say "Arora", but it just doesn't seem to be in her.

Whitley got this shirt for Rhett.  Fitting I think. 

 

After all the gifts were opened, we let the kids play a little and then it was time to get ready for church.  I love when Christmas falls on a Sunday.  It's totally appropriate.  We only had sacrament meeting which was an hour of beautiful Christmas music done by the choir, which included several members of my family.  Katy slept through the whole thing.  I loved being able to hug all my friends and wish them a Merry Christmas.